Strand handling apparatus



Feb. 15, 1944. E. w. REYNOLDS 2,342,009

STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed July 10, 1945 FIG. I

//vv /v 708 E. m REYNOLDS Patented Feb. 15, 1944 2,342,009 STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS :Ellwood Reynolds, Westfield, N..J.,--assignor to Western Electric Company,

Incorporated, New

York,.N. .Y.,-a:corporation of New York. Application July 10, 1943,SerialiNo. 494,202

Claims.

'I'hisinvention relates to strand handling apparatus, and more particularly to a device for guiding strands to "be intertwisted together.

In the manufacture of various'kinds of multistrand conductors and multi-conductor strands for use in the electrical arts there are instances Where it is of high importance for electrical rea' sons that strands intertwisted together to form a cable or compound strand should maintain their mutual spacial relationship to each other as invariant as'possible along the cable, e; g. to prevent inductance or capacitance betweenpairs of component strands from varying along the length of the cable, or, perhaps, to avoid any change in gross cross-sectional dimensions of the cable from one part to another by the crossing over of one component strand over another, which might alter-the total length and hence the total resistance of the'cr'ossing strand as compared to the other strands.

An object of the present invention is to provide a strand guiding means, simple and durable in construction, especially adapted to guide a plurality of strands, and particularlya plurality of fine strands, to a winding point, and to maintain an invariable mutual spacial relationship among the strands converging to the winding point.

With the above invention may be embodied in a device to be mounted a little before the meeting point of a plurality of convergingly advancing strands and comprising a plurality of mutually crossing, resilient or resiliently supported strands defining a plurality of apertures through which the, convergingly advancing strands pass transversely to the guide strands to the meeting point.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures, and in which Fig. l is a plan view of the essential elements of a strand handling apparatus in which a device embodying the invention is employed;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof, partly broken away and partly in section on the line -22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detached plan view of the device; I

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

and other objects in view, the

Fig. 5 is a still further enlarged view of the lid central part of the showing of Fig. 4 with a plurality of guided strands added;

Fig. 6 is an elevation of the showing of Fig, 5 as indicated by the line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig.7 is a view similar to Fig. 5 with a larger plurality of guided strands;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 5 of a modified form; and

Fig. 9 isaview similar toFig. 5 of another modified form.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive, the invention is disclosed as applied in an apparatus particularly adapted to combine six outer or cover strands of equal diameter about a seven'thcentral or core strand of the same diameter, Wherein is particularly desired that the several strands shall maintain their mutual spacial relationships invariant along the compound strand so formed. A base 20 supported by any suitable means not shown, has a central circular bevel-edged recess 2| surrounding a central perforation 22. Pillars 23 support rigidly a top member 24 having a central opening 25 coaxial with the opening 22. Six radial slots 28 in the member 24 open into the opening 25. In each-slot 26 is mounted a guide sheave 21, freely rotatable but fixed in position. The strand guiding device generally indicated at 3B inFigs. 2, 3 and 4, but omitted in Fig. 1 to avoid confusion, rests loosely down on the floor of the recess 2|.

The device 36 comprises a shallow, inverted cup 3| consisting of a round, fiat, laminar, disklike top 32 with a downwardly extending supporting flange or wall 33, centrally perforated at ii i. On the upper surface of the top 32 are mounted three identically similar, elongated, parallel-sided loops 35, 36 and 37 of resilient wire, crossing each other one on top of the other over the center of the opening 3 1. A convenient way of mounting these loops is that shown, wherein the double ends of each loop are brought down through a suitable perforation in the disk top 32 and-clinched as at 38, while the doubled-over end of the loop is held resiliently taut by a coiled tension spring 39 similarly clinched to the'top 32.

The central core strand 28 is brought axially down, from some supply means and guide means not shown, through the centers of the openings 25 and 22, and passes through the coaxial central guide aperture 43 created by the crossing of the three loops 35, 36 and 31. The six cover 2 slots 4I presented by the loops outside the aperture 40. From this aperture 40 and these slots M the strands 28 and 29 converge to mutual contact at a combining point indicated generally at 50 in Fig. 6. What happens to them here is irrelevant to the invention. They may, for example, be served with a binding strand or be covered with braid at this point, or be intertwisted together or otherwise locked into the relative mutual positions imposed on them by their passage through the device 30 to the combining point.

As disclosed in Fig. '7, a totality of nineteen strands, instead of seven, may be dealt with in analogous fashion by the same device 30. Here some of the additional guided. strands are in the slots 4I along with strands of the plurality shown in Fig. '7, and some are in the angular guide slots 42. If a core strand 228 somewhat larger than the cover strands 229 be employed, eight cover strands can be accurately combined with the core strand by employing only the loops 35 and 31, and setting these at right angles to each other, as shown in Fig. 9, instead of at sixty degrees (60).

The combination of one core strand and six cover strands, all of one size, can also be handled, if not in all respects as satisfactorily as in the arrangement shown in Fig. 5, by means of the modification shown in Fig. 8, where the central aperture I40 and guide slots I4I are defined by three mutually crossed single wires I35, I36 and I31.

Other modifications to handle other pluralities and other size combinations are believed to be obvious from the above.

It has been found that, where strands are employed which give off even small amounts of debris of any kind in passing through a stationary guide means intended to have the function of the device 30 above described, if the guide apertures be rigidly defined and if they have side walls of any appreciable depth, as in the case of the familiar multi-perforate guide plate or the equally familiar plurality of guide dies or deadeyes, the guide apertures become rapidly clogged with damage or even breakage of the strands drawn through them. Examples of these are the case of copper strands sheathed with lead-tin alloy recently employed in considerable quantity, also various types of fine wire sheathed in asbestos or in paper pulp or in certain forms of relatively soft textile fiber sheathings. It is not practically possible to draw such strands through a distributor plate or through guide dies having apertures small enough to effectively prevent mutual'displacement of the strands in combining them, because of the rapid clogging of the small clearance permissible if control is to be maintained as closely as necessary.

Two features of the present invention seem to be essentially important to its success, namely the resilience of the wires 35, 36 and 31 or I35, I36 and I31, whence comes the fact that these wires have a degree of lateral freedom of motion, and also the fact that these guide wires have substantially only point contact with the strands being guided by them. Where a multi-perforate distributor plate or die or a plurality of guide dies is employed, the guide apertures are rigidly fixed as to both size and position. Debris from the strands therefore has no escape from the guide apertures except by being drawn along through the apertures by the strand; and, since in such structures these apertures are necessarily of some length, the debris tends to collect and jam between the strand and the aperture wall. In the to the guided strand arrangement of the invention, the guide wires 35, 36 and 31 are rounded in cross-section, as are also the guided strands 28 and 29. Since these two sets of strands lie across each other, the contacts of any guided strand with the guide wires which control its motion are necessarily all point contacts of no appreciable dimension, and debris has no wall face against which to jam. Nevertheless, should a normally unallowable amount of dirt or other debris be piled up on the guide wires and dragged down by a guided strand, the resilience and mutual freedom of the net of guide wires and the lateral resilience of these allows the guide aperture in question to be enlargd momentarily to pass such an accumulation adherent so that jamming and breaking of the guided strand are obviated. In speaking of guide apertures in the appended claims, the term is intended to include apertures with closed boundaries such as 40 and I40, parallel walled guide slots of indefinite lengths suchas 4|, and diverging guide slots 42, I42 and I43.

It may be noted here that in some instances where extreme accuracy of control of the guided strands is desired, the guide wires, as illustrated in the drawing, will be of less diameter than the guided strands, thus enabling these to be brought unusually close together unusually near the combining point while still under the control of the device.

The embodiments of the invention above illustrated and described are illustrative and may be variously further modified and departed from without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as paraticularly described and pointed out in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for handling a plurality of strands and comprising a plurality of laterally resilient elongated members superimposed upon each other in more than one direction to define a plurality of guide apertures, in combination with means to bring longitudinally moving strands to the guide apertures.

2. A device for handling a plurality of strands and comprising a plurality of laterally resilient elongated members superimposed upon each other in more than one direction to define a plurality of closely associated guide apertures, in combination with means to bring longitudinally moving strands along converging paths to the guide apertures.

3. A device fo handling a plurality of strands and comprising a plurality of laterally resilient guide wires superimposed upon each other in more than one direction to define a plurality of guide apertures, in combination with means to bring longitudinally moving strands to the guide apertures.

4. A device for handling a plurality of strands and comprising a plurality of laterally resilient guide wires superimposed upon each other in more than one direction to define a plurality of closely associated guide apertures, in combination with means to bring longitudinally moving strands along converging paths to the guide apertures.

5. A device for handling a plurality of strands and comprising a perforated laminar support and a plurality of guide wires on the support and superimposed upon each other in more than one direction to define a plurality of guide apertures located over the aperture in the support.

6. A device for handling a plurality of strands and comprising a perforated laminar support and a plurality of guide wires on the support means to resiliently tension the first named loop, and superimposed upon each other in more than and means to resiliently tension the second one direction to define a plurality of closely named loop.

associated guide apertures located over the 9. A device for handling a plurality of strands aperture in the support. 5 and comprising a longitudinally tensioned loop 7. A device for handling a plurality of strands of wire, and a second longitudinally tensioned and comprising a perforated laminar support, loop of wire positioned across the first named a wire loop stretched across the aperture in the loop, the crossed loops defining a plurality of support, and a second Wire loop stretched across strand guide apertures. the aperture and across the first named loop, l0 10. A device for handling a plurality of the crossed loops defining a plurality of strand strands and comprising a loop of Wire, means to guide apertures. support and resiliently tension the loop, a sec- 8. A device for handling a plurality of strands 0nd loop of wire, and means to support the second and comprising a perforated laminar support, a loop across the first named loop and to resiliently wire loop positioned across the aperture in the 15 tension the second named loop, the crossed loops support, a second wire loop positioned across defining a plurality of strand guide apertures. the aperture and across the first named loop, ELLWOOD W. REYNOLDS. 

